egypt is bracing for more demonstrations after president morsi offers nothing to calm the political crisis. while in greece they held off protesters launching molotov cocktails. the president is taking the fiscal cliff solution to the people. plus, a modern day five story ripped through the pages of a tom clancey novel. "early today" starts right now. >> announcer: this is "early today" for friday, december 7th, 2012. good mornings,er one. i'm lynn berry. we're going to start with breaking news out of japan. a strong 7.3 earthquake has

struck off the country's northeast coast beneath the sea bed. it shook buildings as far as tokyo and warnings were issued for miyagi prefecture. there's no risk for a widespread tsunami. we'll bring you the very latest. elsewhere, all eyes are on cairo this morning as turmoil has once again overtaken egypt's capitol, this time in response to a political explosive power grab by the president, mohammed morsi. right now army tanks surround the presidential palace as thousands of protesters shout topple the regime, the same chant heard during the regime of hosni mubarak. in a tv show morsi said absolute powers he granted himself will expire with a vote on december 15th but that did little to

silence his opponents who plan a million man march in cairo's tahrir square. at a university in dublin hillary clinton called for dialogue to ease the unrest in egypt. >> we call on all the stakeholders in egypt to settle their differences through discussion and debate, not through violence. >> clinton also called on egypt's leaders to protect the country's promise of post revolution democracy. back here at home, as the fiscal cliff standoff continues in washington the president took his plan out of town to northern virginia where he sat down with a middle class family to talk about the potential impacts they face from the looming fiscal cliff. it's now just 25 days away. nbc's tracie potts joins us with those details from washington. lynn, good morning. good morning, everyone. the president spent time with a family who answered a call from the white house. the question was what would you do if you had to pay another

$2200 in taxes. that's what the white house says will be the average impact on middle class families if they don't work out avoiding this fiscal cliff. the president sat down with a couple, a teacher, a man who works at an auto dealership. they live with her family. the family says they're looking at a couple month's rent if they have to pay more taxes. the president reiterated he absolutely will not sign any deal that does not increase taxes on the wealthy in this country. he said the problem is solvable. >> for them to be burdened unnecessarily because democrats and republicans aren't coming together to solve this problem gives you a sense of the costs involved in very personal terms. >> reporter: now in another development here on capitol hill minority leader mitch mcconnell on the senate side ended up filibustering his own bill here in the senate yesterday.

this was a move president obama wants to raise the debt ceiling without much interference from congress. he has criticized that. he filibustered his own bill after democrats called his bluff to vote on it. lynn. tracie pots for us in washington. tracie, thanks. new jersey governor chris christie is making a personal plea for federal disaster aid. the republican governor paid an unannounced visit to the white house to ask president obama for $83 billion in aid for new jersey, new york, and connecticut. he also met with members of congress. it was their first meeting since touring new jersey disaster areas in late october. tea party leader and some same gop king maker senator jim demint of south carolina is stepping down from congress on january 1st. demint will become the head of the heritage foundation. that's a conservative think tank with an $80 million a year budget. demint is just two years into a second six-year term and south carolina governor nikki haley will appoint his successor.

well, it sure does sound like a plot out of a tom clancey cold war novel. a rogue navy sailor is accused of selling tracking technology to the russians. nbc affiliate reporter andy fox with wavy has that story. >> reporter: robert hoffman appeared in court wearing a t-shirt with a rooster on it with the boards born to fight in reference to cock fighting. >> mr. hoffman, did you try to sell government secrets? >> reporter: just a big smirky smile from hoffman who retired a year ago and is trained as a navy krip tow logic technician. the indictment reads hoffman had access to top secret information which could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security. on october 21st hoffman is accused of delivering secret information to people he believed to be officials with the russian federation on how to

track u.s. submarine using the technology he learned on the job working for the navy. the information included the technology and procedures required to find the subs. hoffman delivered that information to fbi agents posing as an undercover operation. >> that was andy fox reporting. now for a look at your friday weather, nicks meteorologist dylan dreyer is here with the forecast. it happens to be our favorite one. >> i know. it is a good day but, yeah, you know, yesterday was so much colder than it has been. we're actually starting to see a pattern shift here. we are going to see colder air start to work in behind this cold front that is bringing a whole lot of rain through portions of the great lakes through the ohio river valley. basically the country is split in half. the northern part of the country is seeing all this messy weather mostly in the form of rain but the southern half of the country, minus a couple of clouds, really not seeing too much of anything. in fact, most of our warm temperatures are down through

the gulf coast states as well. this cold front is going to move through and produce some rain showers eventually in the northeast a little bit later on today. right now most of the heavier rain is in eastern ohio moving into the pittsburgh area. we also have some snow showers but those are up into canada. it looks like most of the cold air is going to stay away. as far as rainfall accumulations, we'll pick up an inch of rain especially across southern ohio. that's a look at the weather across the country. in new york city, mostly quiet, a few showers with highs in the mid 40s. similar to yesterday, charlotte, nbc nblg, north carolina, 57 degrees. and/or lab doe, 81 degrees this afternoon. that's your latest forecast, lynn. dylan, thank you so much. the big business of those obnoxiously ugly sweaters. plus new numbers out this morning. and we have shocking new details about the horrific garment fire in bangladesh that

killed 112 people. you're watching "early today."

welcome back. stories making news this morning. in michigan republican lawmakers pushed through a right to work bill banning unions paying fees. they called the law an attack on worker's rights. in greece, violence between protesters and police. in bangladesh an official says that fire that killed 112 people last month was in a garment factory that had lost its safety certification back in june. also, the factory owner was authorized to run a three story business but it was illegally expanded to eight storiesed adding a ninth at the time of the late november blaze. at the smithsonian museum in washington, the world's largest

cut stone is now on display. the aqua marine gem is more than a foot tall and weighs almost five pounds. it's called the don pedro gemba. we're going to find out how hard super storm sandy slammed the economy with the government's november jobs report. economists fear sandy battered hiring with estimates of 80 to 93,000 jobs added. that's compared to 171,000 in october. well, good news though from yesterday's weekly jobless claims which held steady right around the pre-storm level. elsewhere, apple says it will begin making one of its mac lines here in the u.s. next year. growing criticism across the pond. starbucks is foregoing certain tax deductions that helped reduce its tax bill to zero in britain agreeing to pay $32 million it does not owe. the securities and exchange commission says netflix chief reed hastings may have violated fair disclosure rules with a

facebook post saying monthly streaming hours had past 1 billion. netflix stocks soared 6% that day. ibm is revamping its retirement plans contributing to employee 401 k accounts just once a year. >> "the wall street journal" reports the washington post will soon begin charging for online articles after a certain number of free ones. sad news out of chicago where the maker of the academy awards oscar statue wets is planning to layoff nearly 100 workers before christmas. finally, 'tis is the season for a holiday party essential, at least the fun holiday paerlts, the ugly christmas sweater. what if you don't owe one? there's one high schooler who can help you out with that. he buys them up and sells them on his website for, get this, 20 to 50 bucks each. he does this all from his parents' basement. little zuckerberg in the making.

coming up, shoppers and everybody else who rides an escalator, beware. we have a story for you. plus, a house engulfed in flames with family still inside including a loved one who lost its home to hurricane sandy. this has a somewhat happy ending. you're watching "early today"

. 3, 2, 1! >> look at that. that was president obama and the first lady along with the first daughter sasha and malea pushed a button to light the christmas tree on the ellipse. some other stories making news across america. four holiday shoppers at a seattle macy's were hospitalized when the escalator they were riding malfunctioned. a store employee tells the seattle times she heard screaming and saw the escalator coming apart. another witness said the mechanical stairs started to buckle. the cause is being investigated. in new york state fire officials are trying to figure out what caused a home to go up in flames so quickly. neighbors reportedly heard an explosion. family members inside the home were able to make it out in time, including a grandmother who had lost her own home during hurricane sandy. employees at a new mexico

store were shocked when they found out a semi-automatic handgun and several rounds of ammunition were packed in a frozen meat shipment. the package came from a meat packing plant in colorado and now they're working to track down the owner. in san diego, forget online dating. one millionaire has purchased a billboard that reads, all i want for christmas is ayla tina girlfriend. really, buddy. along with an e-mail address, mark pasquin is no stranger to the people. in sports we kick off with nfl, thursday night fnk. broncos, raiders. denver quarterback peyton manning connected on a second quarter pass for completion number 5,000 of his career. that's in second place behind brett favre. they won 26-13 over oakland. in the nba raymond felt ton

battled his way and new york had a big second half to beat the heat, 112-92. in phoenix it was satisfaction guaranteed night for fans but dallas took the lead in the fourth quarter and the mavs edged the sundays 97-94. some phoenix fans should demand their money back and get it. the uniform jersey that don marson won in 1956 when he pitched the only perfect game in world series history. it was sold at auction and sold for $750,000. he sold it to pay for his grandchildren's education. it was sold on gotta have it.com. it's good to be a baldwin and we have the mug shot. plus, the golden girl. you're watching "early today."

good morning. we are starting off the day with pretty chilly temperatures all across the northeast and back across the northwest. that's the cold air behind a cold front that is going to start working eastward as we go into the next couple of days. so with this cold front we do have a couple of showers, especially up through the great lakes into ohio. we're starting off the day with some very heavy rain. eventually in boston and new york city, even washington d.c. we will see a couple of lighter showers. then as we go into the start of your weekend we are going to see a few more lingering showers especially in the morning. could mix with some wintery

precip in the highest elevations, even in minneapolis on saturday kicking off the weekend. we should see a few snow showers. temperatures only around 34. dylan, thanks so much. gerard butler is trading in the sword and shield. playing for keeps is being panned by critics. fandango has the film at a dismal 23 out of 100. abraham lincoln brought together a divided nation and it looks like he's going to try to do it again. the senate will be getting together for a screening of "lincoln" next week with steven spielberg on hand for a q and a afterwards. betty white helped open grinchmas where she got the whomanitarian award. >> he looked decidedly well kept

in his mug shot there. baldwin was booked on charges of tax evasion totaling nearly $350,000. jed, justin bieber was snubbed by the grammys. his manager said his frustration. he said he deserved a nomination. is it the beginning of the end for the biebs? say it ain't so. he has so much life left in him. >> it seems immature to go at it with a tweet. >> that's the whole generational thing. it's like scooter is sort of edgy and young. he's going to take it to twit jer and say his peace. ryan seacrest with a big interview with him would have been another way to go. this comes to us from nbc 5 in dallas, texas. in nearby fort worth a young boy was given the sleigh right of a

lifetime. 5-year-old zachary who is undergoing cancer treatment has become fascinated by helicopters. he was given the gift of a helicopter tour of the surrounding county's christmas light. zachary strapped, put on his head set and then they were on their way. it made for one amazing night. a brave little boy, i have to say. i'm incredibly afraid of heights. i would freak out. he was excited. >> i don't think i could do that. good for him. i love when people come out especially around the holidays. >> and give those kinds of gifts? >> right. >> putting a smile on that little boy's face is an important thing to do. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

>> you're watching wbal-tv 11. live, local, late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> good morning. 4:56 on a friday morning and we have some clouds out this morning. we have a cloudy skies are mostly cloudy skies. 33 degrees at the airport. the wind is calm. there is some rain fall shower activity on radar. the could be some freezing drizzle mixed in it.

41 degrees at the inner harbor. we will tell you what is coming up for this weekend. >> 4:57, 33 degrees at the airport. >> the investigation into the speed cameras continues. >> a much anticipated jobs report comes out today but expectations are low. >> we are checking on some early morning accident. 895 is one spot

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